Evolutionary Descendant of Brutality

There are a few reasons for which I am not really the biggest fan of slam and/or brutal death metal in general. I prefer growling to pig squeals, the drums of such albums tend to be a bit annoying and often sound like someone permanently beating a saucepan with wooden sticks and the cover artwork and the lyrics are often a mixture of being disgusting and comical. While all those elements are more or less present on “Evolutionary Descendant of Brutality” I will stop now with the negativity and instead tell you why despite this statement I highly enjoyed this record.

These guys from NRW (Germany) started as a melodic death metal/deathcore band before they changed into an even more aggressive beast. After their full length debut “World Eating Anomaly” in 2015 this is their second album where they have refined their recipe. I read an interview in which they stated bands like Suffocation and Cannibal Corpse as big influences while also incorporating elements from other genres (like slam) and this is a fitting description of the music. Sometimes Bleeding Heaven sound a bit like slightly slowed down Cannibal Corpse or more streamlined Cryptopsy to me. This does not mean that this album is not fast in places – not at all. There are a lot of high speed sections with blast-beat attacks where the listener feels like getting overrun by a bulldozer. However, there are also a lot of passages where the music is crawling and creeping out of the speakers with an immense portion of groove always present.

The drumming is very technical and often has a slightly nervous touch for bigger parts which is quite common for this sub-genre. However, there are also a lot of sections where the drumming is more straight-forward keeping the beat straight. In those parts the music has a fantastic groove. The combination of the blast-beat sections and the rocking mid-tempo parts is implemented with a good feeling for stringent songwriting. Before the listener is too overwhelmed by the chaos one of those groovier sections comes along followed by another complex interlude. There is also some impressive lead guitar work going on but the soloing is not extended in a way that it hurts the flow of the music. The basic chords have a very traditional feeling stoically sawing their way through each track.

Singer Marc has a strong and commanding voice and his growling is powerful and sick (in a positive way). He is also using the above mentioned tools like pig squeals etc. and while I prefer the passages where he uses his strong and more straight-forward growling style I have to state that he is producing all those noisy details in impressive manner.

The production is hefty and raw with the guitars being crunchy and the mix perfectly balanced. In places the drums have this slightly wooden sound but this seems to be a deliberate choice and it is much more acceptable when comparing it to other similar bands. The cover is actually pretty cool with the dark colors lending it a more mature character. Overall “Evolutionary Descendant of Brutality” is a brutal yet immensely groovy piece of music delivered with a lot of passion and professionalism. Fans of slam/brutal death metal can add a few points but also consumers like myself generally preferring old school death metal should give this one a try.